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  He tossed the truck keys to Helen, who climbed into the driver’s seat. The group piled into the other vehicles, all of which were now running, until they were full. It left a dozen or so to walk. Allistor walked with them. Helen and the other drivers formed a sort of rolling guard around them, keeping the cars’ speed at the walkers’ pace and surrounding them all the way back across the parking area and around to the gate.

  Nigel opened the gates farther at Allistor’s command, and the convoy rolled through. Allistor was the last to enter, and the gates clanged shut behind him.

  *****

  Allistor let everyone calm down for an hour or so. Lots of the citizens had seen Justin’s execution, and had concerns. Daniel, Virginia, Bob, and the others quickly circulated the truth of the situation, and things calmed down. Apparently, Justin didn’t have friends within the group looking to avenge his death.

  Just before noon, Allistor called the leaders together again. “Barden’s group should be in disarray for a day or so, but I expect they’ll be back. I’d like to bring in a few of the other groups before then, if possible. But I’ll need to stay here, in case they come earlier than expected. So, I’m looking for volunteers to go out and approach groups you know. Folks you’ve run across that you think might be good additions to our little community. We’ve got extra vehicles, and lots of extra weapons now.” He winked at Bob, who grinned back.

  “I’ll go!” Austin instantly volunteered before his grandmother smacked the back of his head.

  In all, seven men and women stepped forward to volunteer. They were given food and water, extra weapons and ammo, and one of the captured vehicles. Not Barden’s, as Richard reminded everyone that it would be recognized as his, and likely fired upon. An hour later, the vehicles exited the gate with invitations for the other leaders to come and speak with Allistor.

  While they waited, Allistor went into the Stronghold interface and pulled up the building menu again. He constructed a market kiosk, and called Helen and Virginia over to him. “The fact that Justin was able to take the oath and still be working for Barden troubles me. I’m hoping you two can help me find something to deal with that. Ideally it would be a spell to detect lies, or something similar. It could also be an item. I’m not sure what the market might have.” He looked from Virginia to Helen. “Helen, if you wouldn’t mind giving Virginia a quick introduction to the market and how it works? Then the two of you can try and find something that will help us? If I’m about to bring a thousand people in here, I need a way to make sure one of them isn’t going to murder us in our sleep.”

  Leaving them to their search, he walked up to the quarters he’d claimed for himself. Fuzzy followed at his side, having recovered his Fibble doll from somewhere and once again drooling all over it.

  Secure in his quarters, he spoke to the ceiling. “Nigel, please ask Andrea, Dean, Sam, Meg, Amanda, Nancy, George, Michael, and Ramon to get someplace where they can speak privately, preferably together in one place, for a call in thirty minutes.”

  “Of course, Lord Allistor.”

  While he waited, he took some time to survey his quarters. The system had provided basic furniture; a sofa, some chairs, a dining table, and a bedroom set. Nothing fancy, like in the Citadel, but comfortable enough. He moved one of the chairs over so that it sat right in front of the floor to ceiling skybox window, and sat for a while enjoying the view of the city.

  Fuzzy poked around for a while, then moved to the bathroom and plopped down with his belly on the cool floor tiles. Allistor laughed aloud as the bear uttered a contented sigh and closed his eyes.

  Allistor let his own eyes drift shut, and was nearly asleep when Nigel notified him that the others had gathered.

  “You are connected, my Lord.”

  “Hey everyone. Sorry for the short notice. I wanted to update you all on what’s going on…”

  He spent the better part of thirty minutes telling them about Laramie and the happenings there. They asked a few questions, and he answered to the best of his ability. Then he got to the main reason for the call. “Ramon, I’d like you and your people to check around the library for information about the teleport hubs. Specifically, I need to know whether they are movable once they’ve been set up.” He paused, then continued as if thinking aloud, “I’d rather not waste a teleporter on a Stronghold that’s only fifty miles from the Citadel and Silo. The only reason those two both have one is the dangerous nature of the weapons in the Silo. But I may need to quickly evacuate these people here in Laramie, or bring you guys in as reinforcements. So, I’m wondering…”

  Ramon finished it for him. “If you can set up the teleporter, then move it to another Stronghold when the immediate danger there has passed. Got it. We’ll check into it.”

  “Great, thank you Ramon. Also, if you find anything about truth spells, that would be extremely helpful as well.” He paused, then changed the subject.

  “I should have asked this first, but how are things in your respective communities? Anything you need me to know or help deal with?”

  He spent another hour speaking with his inner circle about the various goings-on at his properties. He laughed along with the others when Nancy admitted one of the bunnies had been born with a mutation. Nothing all that sinister, just a third eye. She insisted that it wasn’t a result of her rapid aging of the critters, just a natural occurrence. When Allistor told her about the massive greenhouse at the Stadium, she immediately volunteered herself and George to help get it up and running. Allistor asked her to wait until things were more secure.

  Sam mentioned that he’d created a few new recipes, and that both his and Meg’s Cooking skill was leveling through Journeyman toward Expert. Michael was now enchanting items with enhancements as high as +5 to a single attribute. Ramon and his people had copied the Restore spell and passed it on to more than half the residents of the Warren, Silo, and Citadel.

  Allistor found that talking with his friends helped him unwind quite a bit. When they’d covered all they needed to, he thanked them and congratulated them on jobs well done before ending the call. With nothing else needing his immediate attention, he decided to go back down and help Helen and Virginia search the market for useful items.

  *****

  By dinnertime, all of his ambassadors had returned. Only one came back alone, unable to convince the leader of the group he’d visited to accept Allistor’s invitation. Allistor had purchased several long tables from the market, and had them set up on the field not far from the dining hall. With potentially a thousand people, he was going to need to either expand the hall and the kitchen, or add at least one more.

  As the other leaders arrived, he had them escorted to one of the long tables where he and Helen sat with Daniel and Richard. He greeted each of them with a smile and a handshake, asking them to sit and offering food and drink. He’d pulled some freshly grilled dragon steaks from his inventory for the occasion, giving the potential allies a tasty meal that gave +5 to Stamina for four hours.

  They made small talk until all had arrived, sharing stories about the first days and the troubles they’d had. Each of them thanked him for killing Barden, but most were also concerned about the fallout to come.

  After the last of them arrived and had taken a few minutes to eat, Allistor thumped the table a few times to get their attention.

  “Thank you all for coming here today. I appreciate your open mindedness and the faith in humanity that you’ve shown by accepting our invitation. I hope you’ll leave here thinking it was worth it.”

  He spent a good hour telling them about his experiences since the apocalypse, sharing what he’d learned, minus a few important details like selling rare items for big moolah. He wanted to encourage these people to join him, not give them the tools to go out on their own and potentially become rivals. And he didn’t mention the teleport pads.

  He saw many of them nodding their heads and smiling at him as he continued, so he decided to bring things to a close and ask them to
join him.

  “I’ve been lucky enough to claim a large territory, and successfully build several facilities like this one. I already own more land than we would need in the next hundred years, but I need people like you and yours to make it all work. People to live on the land, to produce crops and crafts, and to help secure it from people like Barden, or the aliens when they come.” He stopped talking to look at each of them for a moment, then sat down and lowered his voice, adopting a less formal attitude.

  “Look. I can offer safety. Ask the folks around you how good it felt to sleep safely through the night last night.” Richard, Daniel, and all the ambassadors nodded and spoke in agreement. “I can offer food, both from hunting and from the greenhouses, which we can set up to grow fruit and vegetables at more than double the normal rate. I can offer access to the market, where we can buy what we can’t grow or kill. Running water and electricity mean hot showers. We have healing spells as well as offensive magic.”

  Pausing again after offering the carrot, he switched to the stick. “Our world as we knew it is gone. There’s no more government here, no more organized military that we’ve been able to find, at least not on a large scale. We’ve got less than a year to prepare ourselves for an alien invasion. I’m trying to form a new nation here. A small nation, I grant you, but a nation of humans. I don’t care what race, religion, nationality you are, just that you’re human. And willing to help me build. I don’t just want to survive here. I want us to thrive, and to grow stronger, and eventually reclaim our whole world. And more than that, I want to take the fight to their worlds and repay them for the billions of us, our family and friends, that they’ve slaughtered.”

  Allistor stopped talking when he noticed a few of them looking nervously at him. He realized he may have gone too far.

  “I know that might make me sound like a madman. And I admit, I am angry after watching my sister and parents killed in those first days. And too many friends since then. My plans might seem a little lofty and far-fetched right now. And maybe I can’t pull it off. But what I know I can do… what we can do… is work together to ensure that you, and you, and your children, and their children, live decent lives.” He pointed at those who seemed most unsure as he spoke.

  He let the silence reign for a while, simply sitting there looking at his visitors one by one. He was pretty sure of three of them, as they had been nodding and smiling even while he ranted about fighting on alien planets. Another seemed on the fence, but he thought she might be swayed when the first three agreed. The other two he had doubts about.

  Something his father had taught him years earlier, when they’d been discussing politics, was that in a situation where you want something from someone, you make your pitch then shut up. From that point on, the first one who speaks loses. They’ll either accept your proposal, or ask a question that gives you another chance to convince them. But if you speak first, you’re admitting that you failed to get your point across, or that you aren’t confident enough to wait for their response.

  So, he sat, and he looked. His people began to shuffle a bit, tapping their feet or drumming fingers on the table. He tried to calm each of them with a look, but he didn’t have telepathy. Yet. He smiled to himself, thinking about finding a Telepathy scroll on the market and building a nation of telepaths.

  Oddly enough, that unintended smile seemed to sway one of the two doubters. He smiled back at Allistor and stuck out his hand. “I can’t commit my people without talking to them. But I want to join you. And I think they will too. There are eighty of us, including the kids. Do you have room?”

  Allistor saw the others all lean forward at this question. “Absolutely. I built this place to handle twelve hundred residents. And there’s room to expand.” Their eyes widened at the number, and several of them turned to take a closer look at their surroundings.

  Two minutes later the three he had expected to join him had done so, along with the woman he’d labeled as ‘on the fence’. That left just one of the visiting leaders as a hold-out. Allistor looked at the man expectantly, and waited.

  Finally, the man stood. “I’m just not sure. My group has taken heavy losses from raids by Barden and his people. I’m sure you can understand we have… trust issues. When he first arrived at our camp, he made a lot of promises of safety and cooperation. We believed him. He came back the next day with thirty guys and killed my dad and ten of our people. Stole most of our food, and four women. Two of them had kids that he left behind as orphans. Another had a seven-year-old son that Barden killed when he cried too loudly for his mother.”

  The grief in the man’s voice brought tears to Allistor’s eyes. He tried to be a strong leader, but in truth he was still a twenty-year-old man who’d lived a relatively sheltered life. True, he’d been hardened by events and losses since the end of the world. But his heart still hurt for this man and his people. And his anger burned over the dead Barden’s actions.”

  Allistor took a deep breath, wiping the tears that formed in his eyes without caring who saw them. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that asshole found you before I did. For your losses, and for the loss of your ability to trust most of all. I think that’ll be among the hardest things for all of us to regain.”

  The man nodded. “I will speak to my group. And… if you’re willing, you can come and speak to them as well. That’s the best I can do.”

  “It’d be my pleasure.” Allistor held out a hand, and the man shook it. Turning to take in the others, he said, “You’re all welcome to spend the night here. It’ll be dark very soon, and we all know that more of the monsters come out after dark.”

  The man who was still gripping his hand shook his head. “I’d like to return now, if that’s alright?”

  “Of course. I’ll drive you myself.” Allistor looked at Helen, who nodded. Fuzzy, who had been lying nearby hoping for scraps, simply got up and started walking toward their truck.

  When she saw the alarmed look on the man’s face, she smiled and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll sit in back with the smelly beast. But be ready to roll your window down. When he farts, it qualifies as a chemical attack.”

  The others all elected for a safe night’s sleep, so Daniel volunteered to show them to some empty exec quarters. Allistor led the man and Helen toward the truck. “I’m sorry, tell me your name again? I’m afraid I’m terrible at names.”

  “I’m Lang. My daughter and I, we’re originally from Cheyenne. We left there after the monsters started coming out. Thought it might be safer to be out of the city. A whole bunch of us felt that way, and we gathered together. Laramie is as far as we got.”

  They got into the truck, and Allistor drove them out the gate, which opened and closed for him automatically. Lang pointed to the right. “Head west. Camp’s about a mile and a half.”

  Helen prodded him a little from the back seat, where she was scratching Fuzzy’s head. “Why’d you stop in Laramie?”

  “Barden.” Lang answered bitterly. “We stopped and made camp here, planning to siphon gas from some cars, do a little foraging. Planned to just stay a day or two, then continue on. There’s a reservoir about forty miles west of here, with a big park. We figured we could hunt and fish, build ourselves a little fort like our ancestors did. We heard reports that cities attracted larger numbers of the monsters.”

  Neither Helen nor Allistor had heard anything similar, but Helen replied, “I suppose that makes a sort of sense. Predators naturally go where there’s abundant prey.”

  Lang nodded. “Anyway, Barden showed up our first night. He must have had scouts watching the roads or something. He came to us with his promises of protection, and we told him we’d think about it and take a vote. He left us for the night, and we talked about it. Some of us wanted to stay, but most of us wanted to keep going. Laramie’s a smaller city than Cheyenne, but it’s still a city.”

  He paused and took a deep breath. “They attacked us the next morning before half of my people were even awake. Killed
anyone who picked up a weapon, took most of our vehicles and food, and a few of our people. He threatened to kill anyone who tried to leave, because we worked for him now. We had to forage and provide a quota of food every week.”

  “That night, a family of four decided to sneak away under the cover of darkness. I don’t know if they made it, but when Barden came back, he saw they were missing and claimed to have killed them.”

  They traveled on in silence after that, except when Lang instructed Allistor to turn. It wasn’t long before they reached his camp. Allistor started to slow when he heard a shrill whistle, but Lang whistled back with some kind of bird call and told him to keep going. They drove into a courtyard of an office building that rose ten stories above ground. Lang explained; “There’s a parking garage below, and it has solar panels on the roof. So we can have working lights underground without the monsters seeing. And we can collect rainwater from the roof for washing and flushing.”

  Allistor parked the car and got out. As the people gathered around, he saw that it was a larger group than expected. Something close to two hundred people were standing around him when Lang introduced him. He also introduced Helen and Fuzzy, who caused a bit of a stir. When everyone was calmed, Lang vouched for Allistor, then gave him the floor.

  Allistor took a deep breath… and began his sales pitch again.

  Chapter 4

  Kill Or Be Killed

  The following morning, Helen administered the oath to the entire group, then took the truck filled with Fuzzy and six orphaned children back to the Stronghold right after breakfast. She was to deliver the children, and return with every working vehicle their people could get together.

  Lang and his group had unanimously agreed to join Allistor. There were two hundred and thirty-one of them, including the orphans, who got a vote as well. Allistor and Helen had been amazed that they’d been able to feed themselves for so long. Lang said it wasn’t easy, and that they wouldn’t have been able to do so for much longer. His people were good foragers, but Barden had taken more than half of everything they’d gathered.